Qaloo bal wajadna abaana kathalika yafAAaloon (surah Shuara: 74)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(26:74) They replied, "No, but we have found our elders doing the same. " *53

Qaaloo bal wajadnaaa aabaaa `anaa kazaalika yaf`aloon

*53) That is, "We do not worship and serve them because they hear our prayers and supplications, or that they can harm and benefit us, but because we have seen our elders worshipping and serving them." Thus, they themselves admitted that the only reason of their worshipping the idols was the blind imitation of their forefathers. In other words, they meant this: "There is nothing new in what you are telling us, We know that these are idols of stone and wood, which do not hear anything, nor can haran or do good; but we cannot believe that our elders who have been worshipping them since centuries, generation after generation, were foolish people. They must have had some good reason for worshipping these lifeless images, so we are doing the same as we have full faith in them."